


A good friend

by makesometime



Series: A Wilde Week 2020 [6]
Category: Rusty Quill Gaming (Podcast)
Genre: 18-Month Time Gap (Rusty Quill Gaming), A Wilde Week 2020 (Rusty Quill Gaming), Friendship, Grief/Mourning, Imprisonment, Lord Alfred Douglas was a dickkkk, M/M, Pre-Relationship, Realization, Regret, Scars
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-21
Updated: 2020-11-21
Packaged: 2021-03-09 23:40:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 502
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27654245
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/makesometime/pseuds/makesometime
Summary: So easily.He fell for it so easily.
Relationships: Zolf Smith/Oscar Wilde
Series: A Wilde Week 2020 [6]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2016722
Comments: 16
Kudos: 58
Collections: A Wilde Week 2020





	A good friend

**Author's Note:**

> _Day 6 - “A good friend will always stab you in the front.”_  
>  **Betrayal | Loyalty** | Blood

There was a certain amount of hubris in the conclusion they came to all those months ago. A confidence. They have each other, a steady companion to look out for any risks, so why would they ever be exposed?

Why would they ever be compromised and have to do the unthinkable?

Why would Bosie appear out of nowhere at the end of the world and why would he be such a godsdamn fool as to fall for it?

So easily.

He fell for it so easily.

It is the opposite of comforting when Zolf watches him strip every day at the check-in with his hand tight around his glaive.

He's ready. He won't hesitate.

And yet the way Zolf’s face turns soft when he passes inspection and presents his cheek for a cleric's attention. The care, his tenderness…

He's better at this than Oscar. He can compartmentalise it all so much better.

Zolf ensures he has salves and antiseptics, talks him through the care he needs to give his eventual scar. The evidence of his idiocy.

Oscar cannot say he'd do the same for Zolf. That he'd be able to do the same.

When he's alone, the thoughts get vicious, the self-hatred flares in fierce, angry pulses that turn his face hot, his heart pounding. He throws more than one book across the cell and bouncing off the stone wall for no reason other than to break through the litany of voices.

Eventually, Zolf joins him.

“You shouldn't be here.”

“You can't get me out here, Oscar.” He says, quiet, assured. He's never used Oscar's given name as much as he has this week. Maybe it's a coping mechanism. Maybe it's a balm. “And you're not doing well on your own.”

“I've been fine on my own for years.”

Zolf doesn't flinch, but it's a close thing. He leans in closer, setting his glaive down with a sigh and resting his forearms on his thighs. “You don't need to be fine. That's why you've got me, now.”

Oscar wonders if Zolf can hear his heart breaking in two.

“You're not… wrong. Or bad. Or damaged. Whatever the voices in your head are saying. They're lying.” He sighs. “Believe me, I know.”

He allows the veracity of that statement to pass through him, to percolate in his mind and to settle its truth over the cracks in his fractured soul. It helps, in its way. It muffles the pain. It allows him to focus on the worst of the hurts.

“I trusted him.” He says, barely loud enough for Zolf to hear.

Zolf blows out a quiet breath and nods, painfully understanding. “He was a friend.”

Oscar remembers the look on Bosie's face as he loomed over him with a knife, ready to plunge it right into the meat of his back.

He thinks of Zolf, ready to cut him down where he stands despite whatever it is that's growing between them now, no hesitation.

“No.” He says, very quietly. “No, he wasn't.”


End file.
